I live in a land called Mid-America. Here, we want less government involvement in our lives. And we're mostly non-elite, working middle-class. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Joe, Wrong Again.

First he claimed that most Americans want a government-sponsored health care system. Now, Joe Conasan, who writes for the liberal rag New York Observer, says:

As a matter of fact, America's current health care system wastes considerably more than a trillion dollars every year. We know that because countries such as France, Germany, Japan and Finland, with comparable standards of living to ours, spend roughly half what the United States spends annually on health care per citizen, while covering everyone and achieving better results.

Wait one minute. While it is true that the United States spends more on health care, both measured as per capita and as a percentage of GDP, to claim we get worse results is absurd.

After adjusting country data, from the 1990s, for differences in both age and death rates in the general population, Americans were found to have the best chance of survival for two of the five cancers that the reasearchers considered: breast cancer in women and prostate cancer. (Cuba had impressive survival rates, but these were probably over-estimated, say researchers). Europe lags behind America, with wide differences in survival rates, ranging from 10% for breast cancer to 34% for prostate cancer. Money appears to be an important factor: America spends a greater proportion of national income on health than the other countries.

Researchers found that USA has the best score with 5 years of survival rate for breast cancer at 83.9% and prostate cancer at 91.9%. Japan scores the best for colon cancer at 63% and rectal cancer at 58.2% in men. Women living in France have the highest rates for colon and rectal cancers at 60.1% and 63.9% respectively.

I could go on, but it's so easy for anyone to look up the facts (unless you're only looking for "facts" that back up your position). You may find that with other conditions, the results may be slighly different, but the bottom line for me -- and a lot of other people -- is that if I get injured or sick, I'm in the right country.

I have found in my own research that liberals tend to ignore facts that disagree with their position more than conservatives.

While far from perfect, the United States has the best health care system in the world.